Shayla Tilton's Mission Blog: 2014-09-14

Hey y'all!

First, Happy Birthday Kris!!! :) Don't be letting your age get to ya!

We had a beautiful week! Who knew we'd be having this great of a cool summer! LOVE IT!

So this week wasn't fully full of fantastic exciting things! But I feel like it was really full....am I getting short term memory loss?? Yikes! I'm on 20! :p

First things first, we were 'nominated' by a less active to do that Ice Bucket Challenge...so we did it this week! Thanks Roark fam! :p I did get a video, but cant send it, sorry! I did however get the least of the water...they kinda missed me and threw it on sister Bangs instead. Don't worry, I didn't ever move either! It was cold though!!! See pics!

So this email will be a little different than my most, more on the spiritual side! That's ok right :)

This week we had our interviews with our mission president I am really am grateful to have President Ames as my mission president, I don't think any other mission is as blessed as to have him here! He has completely made missionary work a whole other way, and he has helped me in ways that he will never know!

I've been struggling a little bit with my companion, not that we've been fighting at all or anything, but more on the lines of 'im done with living with girls 24/7' ...im an idiot right?! :p haha but I was able to talk to President Ames about everything and one thing he told me was that it was ok to be excited to go home - that I need to be preparing and I should be accepting the fact that my mission does come to an end. It kind of scares me that this mission is preparing me for the rest of my life because I know that preparation compared to the actual test is a huge difference. But I know that God has a plan! :) It seems like at the beginning of my mission I was super energetic and excited about everything and now, as I have been looking back on the past month, I've noticed that I have become more exhausted and tired. Well, last night I was thinking about Sister Powell after we had just taught her about carrying her load and how God doesn't expect us to be perfect at everything, even when we know what were suppose to be doing, and that He doesn't want us to be exhausted, so I started thinking to myself "Ok Sister Tilton, it's time to apply what your teaching to your own life!" So I began to just write what I have been teaching those I have been teaching, and then read it to myself and apply. I could see a difference just by doing that. I wish I did this earlier in my mission. But thank goodness for repentance! I think life gets like that in general! Darn natural human!

But it seemed like this whole time, we (as missionaries) have been striving to be 'the best missionary we can be' but what President Ames has been bringing up is that he doesn't want us to be the best missionary we can be, he wants us to be disciples of Jesus Christ. So I made a goal to do that this week and to not worry about what I'm not. Matthew 11:28-30 hit me so hard, "Take my yoke upon you, and LEARN of ME; for I am MEEK and LOWLY in heart." I needed to read this! I need to learn of Him. We need to learn of Him. In order for us to be truly happy, we cant 'strive to be better' but to 'be a disciple of Jesus Christ' and then can we have that true change.

I love this gospel, and I don't want to leave my mission but I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to come on a mission, and now as it is slowly coming to an end, I'm grateful for the time I had and the time I have now to give it my all. It's ok to not be perfect, "God doesn't expect us to be perfect, but He expects us to perfectly try!" -President Ames

Y'all have a great week! Put Christ as the center of your life! :)

Sister Tilton :)

This is Estella and Victor! Cutest kids ever :)before, and after!